Thursday, July 28, 2005

On Joel Osteen's "Church": Does Jesus Exist to Make us Happy?

Just want to point readers to Jason Byassee's excellent piece on Joel Osteen. Jason is remarkably charitable to Osteen, but in the end--and because of that--offers a stinging critique of Osteen's version of what Rodney Clapp once called "Winnie-the-Pooh" theology. Pooh bear reasons as follows: If I hear buzzing, there must be bees about; if there are bees, there must be honey; and if there is honey, it must be FOR ME! Osteen translates that into a theology which populates a stadium each Sunday.

Yet another reason that the church stands in dire need of her own Orwell.

About Me

Professor of Philosophy, Calvin College and Editor of Comment magazine. / / This is my space for "thinking out loud," an arena for practice at writing quickly and off-the-cuff. Comments are off, not because I don't value the opinions of others, but simply because I don't have time to do justice in reply.